Lemuria Are Back and Better Than Ever

If you ask me, ever since their formation, Lemuria have consistently been one of the most under-celebrated bands. Their 2008 debut Get Better is a seminal meditation on being awkward and having feelings. It reminds me of every late teens/early twenties evening spent alone in my bedroom scrolling through the Bridge 9 forum or trawling Blogspot for new music – which was, let’s be honest, most evenings. Sonically it’s a patient but punchy adaptation of 90s indie, landing somewhere between Rilo Kiley and Jawbreaker, with guitarist Sheena Ozzella and drummer Alex Kerns trading the spotlight line-by-line. Lyrically, it pays close attention to the little things – the mundane things – about people and relationships. It cringes, pines and rages, safe in the knowledge that things will, inevitably, get better. It’s an album, and a sound, for people of an age where having a crush is still quite exciting and full of possibility, rather than, you know, loaded with hang-ups from the past, existential dread and the fear of dying alone!!

All of which is to say: Lemuria aren’t a massive band, but they are massively important to pretty much everyone who likes them. They haven’t put out an album in four years – the last being 2013’s The Distance Is So Big – but back in September their webstore was updated to include a “secret LP”. It came with little information beyond the assurance that “everything you receive will be items and songs you’ve never seen or heard before!”, with it all sold directly from the band to fans; everything personalised. With nothing but trust to go on, fans cleaned up the vast majority of things in the webstore and waited. Now, we know the secret is a self-released album called Recreational Hate – and it slaps.

“We knew we wanted to self release the album, and that the nature of a self release would mean that the conversation with people listening was entirely on us,” bassist Max Gregor tells me over email. “We tried to frame the method of release in a way that best represented how we wanted to begin that conversation, and I think it starts as a low-key talk with our closest, and then grows from there.”

“I think we have always tried to take our time with the release of any of our records, trying to be careful not to rush or release anything we don't all LOVE 100% percent,” Sheena adds. “We each have had a series of life changes and moves the last few years, and I'm actually impressed we wrote and finished a record in between it all. These days, time spent together is just more concentrated and I think it works well for us and our musical energy.”

It might be the way it opens – Sheena singing over a minimal and beautiful guitar line that harks back to Saddle Creek’s roster circa the early 00s – but there’s something about Recreational Hate that feels a little warmer while still retaining that classic Lemuria punch (also: there’s a trumpet on it!). Streaming above, “Kicking In” is a slice of bright, leisurely indie pop with a heavy country vibe, complete with a righteous slide guitar solo, thank you very much. The whole album feels lighter than anything that’s come before.

“Things feel… a little less intense, a little more playful,” Max says. “I think I got so used to the momentum of the band existing in a certain way, maintaining what we were doing and the way we were doing it, but in the past few years that’s been mixed up and re-worked. It makes me realise that this band is something that can exist in a number of ways, and I don’t need to worry about it.”

“I never thought I'd allow a drum machine to make it into one of our songs, but in the middle of ‘Wanted To Be Yours’ you'll hear it,” says Alex, “It was fun experimenting and not allowing stubbornness hold us back from exploring new ways of delivering our songs. I think it's the most audibly candid portrait of us.”

Running concise at nine tracks long, Recreational Hate is the sound of a seasoned band experimenting within a space they’ve established for themselves. It packs in all the sentiment, concern and attention to tiny detail you'd expect from Lemuria, but feels a little more at ease. If their previous albums have felt like bursts of frustration or joy, then Recreational Hate is more of a contented sigh. “I think we just all wanted to make a really fun record," Sheena says, "without any limits but still have it reflect us as a band of three people who are each into lots of different things. I listen to it and smile and that feels really great.”

Recreational Hate will be out digitally on 15 December and physically on 2 February in the UK. Pre-order it via Big Scary Monsters from 15 December.

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